the girl who played with knives || clato ✔️

27

Clove

We wake up to a full-scale tracker jacker attack, the tiny golden mutts zipping around and spewing from their shattered nest on the ground. We all run around screaming, swatting at the tracker jackers and stumbling around blindly.

"To the lake!" Someone shouts. "To the lake!"

We abandon all our supplies, other than what we have on us, and run towards what is hopefully the lake. Surely the mutts won't follow us underwater. Even if they do, this is the best chance we've got.

I hear someone's screams behind me, a girl no doubt, but my mind is already too foggy to decipher if it's Glimmer or Marina. I keep running, thrashing through the low-hanging branches as the tracker jacker venom starts to get to my head. The trees wobble and the sun's too bright. The forest floor turns to liquid suddenly beneath me, and I collapse in a heap. A huge blue butterfly floats lazily over to me, growing in size until it grabs me with its long black tongue and pulls me into darkness.

-

"Clove! Clove!" I hear a shout. It sounds far away. "Clove!" I squint in the too-bright light and see a wobbly figure running towards me. Then the figure splits into two. "Clove! Get up!" The person on the left shouts. I blink several times and soon see that it's Chase, and the other figure is Cato. I mumble their names and sit up slowly.

"Come on, Marvel's at the lake," Cato says.

"What about Glimmer? And Marina?" I ask drearily. Chase just shakes his head. I'm too numb to feel the grief at Marina's loss but it'll hit me later. "Peeta?" Cato swallows.

"He got away... I cut his leg. He won't survive long. He was trying to help Katniss. She got away too," he says. Chase looks down. I stand up slowly.

"Have you heard any cannons?" I ask. Chase shakes his head.

"Maybe they're still alive- Marina and Glimmer. We should try and find them," I say and the boys agree. We wander the forest slowly until we come across a gnarled body. I gasp.

It's Marina, writhing on the ground, her limbs twisted at odd angles, covered in oozing lumps from the stings. She mumbles something about a tiny girl. The venom seeping through my veins makes her scene even more grotesque.

"Tiny girl, tiny... don't sting me," she says.

"Marina!" I drop to the ground beside her, snapping out of my daze. My head pounds and the forest floor tilts slightly. The excruciating pain from my stings hits me at full force. But it's nothing compared to the pain of seeing Marina like this. "Marina..." tears have started to leak from my eyes. "No... no, I..."

"Tiny... Clove?" Marina says faintly, pulling out of the fog for just a second.

"Yes, it's me, its Clove. Marina I'm here, just... stay with me," I say weakly through a vail of tears. A cannon booms, seeming louder and longer than usual. "No! Marina don't... don't leave me, Marina... Marina..." I clutch her broken fingers as if I could give some of my life to her. Or all of it. It was supposed to be her. Cato and I couldn't leave each other, so it had to have been her. But now here we are, and there she is, slipping away from me. "Marina," I say; a statement, a promise, a tribute to a tribute who deserved to be more than just a piece in the Games.

Cato

We sit around on crates in the shade of the Cornucopia, wincing every time we move from the pain of the tracker jacker stings. The swelling hasn't gone down at all. In fact, if anything it seems to have gotten worse.

We've slept a lot. And then just sat in the blistering heat staring at the bright blue sky, which has begun to darken. We sit still a while longer, waiting for the anthem. When it begins to sound and the seal of the Capitol appears in the sky, we all sit up a little straighter and stare intently at the seal. It disappears and is replaced by Glimmer's face. Then Marina's. I frown as I think of the girl from 4, our ally and above all a friend. I should be glad. She was competition. But instead I feel as if there's a deep hole in my chest. The venom still in my system drags me into a nightmarish world once I drift off to sleep.

Clove

"I can't stand this, Cato. Just... sitting here. Why don't we just leave already? Or kill Marvel? There's no Glimmer here to stop us," I say exasperatedly.

"Clove, there must still be some tracker jacker venom in you if you think we could pull that off. They have all the supplies. Plus, Chase," Cato responds.

"I didn't think you cared what happened to Chase."

"I don't know, I... whatever, we can't leave."

"Lets just kill Marvel then," I groan, only somewhat surprised at my own words. Truly... the Games do change you.

"I... sponsors won't like that."

"Well, I doubt sponsors like this conversation. They already know, Cato. And they'll love it. It just adds more drama to the Games," I continue, lowering my voice but gesticulating wildly.

"'Kay, fine, but not right now."

"Fine."

I stand up and walk away, signifying the end of the conversation. As I get further and further away, it feels as if there's a fishhook stuck in my heart, and the further I get away from Cato, the harder it pulls at me, threatening to tear my heart out. I hate it, this wedge the Games is driving between us... the Games in general. Why do these Games even have to be a thing? Why did we have to get reaped? Why'd I have to come here and leave my family behind? And worst of all- I kick the dirt at my feet- why does Cato have to be-

"Clove!" Its Chase, yelling at me and running up to drag me away from... the mines. I've almost reached them, I'm mere inches from the nearest one, and as I back up slowly, staring at the mines with blurry eyes, I can't help but think that maybe it would be better if I'd just stepped on it and ended all of this.